A question of religion & engineering: how do you face Mecca if you're in orbit?

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Spotted here. It's an interesting idea, since how does a space-faring Muslim find Mecca if he's in zero-gee and either in orbit or deep space?

Since more & more countries are able to achieve orbit, some people are thinking very seriously about these things, and recently had a two-day conference in Malaysia about it.

― kingfish in absentia (kingfish), Monday, 4 December 2006 21:20 (seventeen years ago) link

Way i figure it, get yourself a radio transponder or three for direction, set up a few gyroscopes on your prayer surface to stabilize it, then, barring delays or signal interference, you should be fine.

― kingfish in absentia (kingfish), Monday, 4 December 2006 21:22 (seventeen years ago) link

You set up a Mecca Sandbox in the corner.

― Louis Jagger (Scourage), Monday, 4 December 2006 21:24 (seventeen years ago) link

PUT YOUR HANDS UP FOR LOUIS JAGGER - HE LOVES TO INSULT MUSLIMS

― [electric sound of] esteban buttez (Estie Buttez), Monday, 4 December 2006 21:27 (seventeen years ago) link

TURN THATAWAY YOU POXY FULE

― StanM (StanM), Monday, 4 December 2006 21:27 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah, 50 demerits to Gryffindor for that one

― kingfish in absentia (kingfish), Monday, 4 December 2006 21:33 (seventeen years ago) link

nfw

― friday on the porch (lfam), Monday, 4 December 2006 22:01 (seventeen years ago) link

louis, do you hate all religion without prejudice?

― friday on the porch (lfam), Monday, 4 December 2006 22:03 (seventeen years ago) link

How is the answer not just "down"?

― Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 4 December 2006 22:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Sorry, but this IS an example of religion being really stupid.

― Hurting (A-Ron Hubbard), Monday, 4 December 2006 22:04 (seventeen years ago) link

I thought the Mecca sandbox wz like the ILX sandbox, not "lol towelheads, they live in desert lol"

― step hen faps (Curt1s Stephens), Monday, 4 December 2006 22:06 (seventeen years ago) link

"MECCA IS CURRENTLY DOWN LOL IN THE MEANTIME PLEASE FACE TEH SANDBOX"

― Hurting (A-Ron Hubbard), Monday, 4 December 2006 22:09 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't think Louis Jagger is capable of consciously creating any amusing joke.

― [electric sound of] esteban buttez (Estie Buttez), Monday, 4 December 2006 22:10 (seventeen years ago) link

in space, no one can hear you اجتهاد

― Tyrone Slothrop (Tyrone Slothrop), Monday, 4 December 2006 22:15 (seventeen years ago) link

Hee.

― Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 4 December 2006 22:16 (seventeen years ago) link

How is the answer not just "down"?

doesn't really work if you're over, say, Hawaii, or circumnavigating the Moon, esp. if you have to do it 5x in a 24 hour period(assumedly). I wonder how the Saudi we sent up on one of the Shuttle missions handled it.

"Down" doesn't work as a frame of reference if you're rotating or on some sorta 2001-like station w/ a spinning ring section.

― kingfish in absentia (kingfish), Monday, 4 December 2006 22:16 (seventeen years ago) link

The correct answer is "abandon your silly superstition."

― Hurting (A-Ron Hubbard), Monday, 4 December 2006 22:17 (seventeen years ago) link

I can't remember what Red/Green/Blue Mars Muslims did!

― Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 4 December 2006 22:18 (seventeen years ago) link

we're jews in space, flying along, defending the hebrew race

― Tyrone Slothrop (Tyrone Slothrop), Monday, 4 December 2006 22:23 (seventeen years ago) link

curtis stephens' post is the only sign of intelligent life on this thread

― Louis Jagger (Scourage), Monday, 4 December 2006 22:29 (seventeen years ago) link

If you're in low earth orbit, it does matter. If you're in geosynchronous orbit, mecca is in the same direction always.

If you're in deep space: "towards that little blue dot"

― jw (ex machina), Monday, 4 December 2006 23:38 (seventeen years ago) link

if you're in another universe?

― latebloomer (clonefeed), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:05 (seventeen years ago) link

somersaults

― remy bean (bean), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:09 (seventeen years ago) link

why is it stupid, hurting? why is it stupid, louis?

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:18 (seventeen years ago) link

why do you care if a muslim wants to face mecca from space? i imagine that since muslims and space stations are very far from your day to day experience you really shouldn't give a shit what muslims care to do on space stations.

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:20 (seventeen years ago) link

it's not stupid, dude. for fuck's sake, the idiots on this thread who interpreted my entirely innocent reference to the ILX sandbox as a racist taunt...you make me sick. (not you vahid!)

there's nothing wrong with praying towards mecca. i really don't mind what they do. i was only trying to make a joke... :-(

― Louis Jagger (Scourage), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:22 (seventeen years ago) link

don't let it get you down, kiddo

go see the fuck a creationist thread if you want to see disdain for a religion

― bliss (blass), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:28 (seventeen years ago) link

vahid totally OTM.

i imagine that since muslims and space stations are very far from your day to day experience you really shouldn't give a shit what muslims care to do on space stations.

I don't. I really, deeply do not care.

― whoop de doodle (kenan), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:29 (seventeen years ago) link

go see the fuck a creationist thread if you want to see disdain for a religion

haha welcome to little club

― whoop de doodle (kenan), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:30 (seventeen years ago) link

i'd rather not ... but also let's not forget that when religionists consider these (silly seeming) questions really really seriously, once in a while religious laws get loosened up as a result ... see "how do muslims do the fast at the north pole?" and so on (answer, decided 500 years ago: "ok, you don't have to fast if it will kill you")

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:45 (seventeen years ago) link

in other words, if christians never worried about how many angels danced on the head of a pin, they might never have produced aquinas or pascal, right?

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:50 (seventeen years ago) link

Right (xpost), and as long as that's the answer, it's fine. I don't think religion is stupid, just orthodoxy. Believe me, I was raised Jewish, and Judaism is probably more prone to ridiculous technicality than any other religion. But as long as you stay out of that territory, I have no problem with it.

― Hurting (A-Ron Hubbard), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:51 (seventeen years ago) link

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